Is Anyone Surprised by These Woodward Revelations?

You can see Kate Riga’s run-down of some of the most jarring revelations of the new Woodward book on Trump here. She has other morsels here in Livewire.

I wanted to make a more general point. These anecdotes, quotes and revelations are gobsmacking, jarring, bizarre. But it takes nothing away from the feat of reporting or the labor to bring these details into the light of day to say that really none of this is surprising. There’s not one thing I’ve read so far that couldn’t be inferred from President Trump’s twitter feed or his public statements – in press conferences, impromptu availabilities and the campaign rallies he still holds while serving as President.

In some cases, he has literally said these things in public. He certainly shows the abusive, aggressive behavior so pervasively that it amounts to his brand. He is an habitual, compulsive, comical liar. He lacks any moral compass. He is thoroughly, indeed militantly ignorant.

I say all these things merely to make the point that it is astonishing that the country has allowed this clownish hustler to remain President for almost two years. Even if President Trump were somewhat normal in policy terms, whether on immigration, civil rights, trade, alliances, etc and even if he hadn’t conspired with a foreign government to get elected he still wouldn’t be remotely equipped to be President. And yet here we are. Some will act surprised.